Wild weekend

So our wild weekend is finally drawing to a close. Everyone survived Friday night even though I was gone for a staff meeting Friday night followed by a fun-filled day of Army stuff on Saturday. For drill we started by packing 12 people into a van (I had five RSVP as needing a ride) and three others in a POV, plus a few more met us on-site for a demobilization ceremony for a local company. One surprise was finding out the night before that I was NCOIC ("in charge") when the Commander needed to be at our facility for inspections. Our primary conductor is dealing with family medical issues and was not available. A third of the band was being left behind for the inaugural rehearsal of a new performing group, and all our full time and supply staff were involved in administrative inspections. That left me with two trumpets, one of whom hadn't played a ceremony with us before. Our percussion section (the other high-profile part of the band for ceremonial purposes) was comprised of one percussionist, a floutist and me. Yep, I was on "the plates" as I found out the cymbals are sometimes called. Not sure I held those things correctly, and I still have indentations from the straps on my fingers. I did get a short "talking to" by the State Command Sergeant Major (the highest-ranking NCO in the state) when he singled me out, apparently recognized my name, and asked if I was "ready to take over this unit." He's the one trying to get our First Sergeant promoted and into another unit in the state ... we'll see what happens there.

The afternoon was where the "real fun" was to be had. After a long-overdue promotion ceremony for one of our platoon sergeants we split up for an afternoon of training and inspections. I managed to stay awake long enough to get credit for being in the mandatory training briefs, then we did a full inspection of everyone's clothing and field gear. I was glad my inspection was done the day before, so I was able to complete inspections for several others. We seemed to work quite efficiently and I got my people on the road towards home before most of the others. Of course I ended up sticking around to tie up loose details and left an hour after the majority of the band had left, but that's becoming sort of the norm.

The girls had a great time at the Temple followed by a convert baptism on Saturday. Hope they enjoyed their brief respite from homework as we're headed into "crunch time" for school. The boys are pretty much done but the girls will have to be on-point each day to keep up with things. After our calendaring session today that might take a minor miracle. Thankfully I'm not up against deadlines at work, so I can be home when needed. Unfortunately we need the extra hours to pay for some of the added expenses right now. It will all work out I'm sure.

This morning we thought Rory was having her best day of the weekend, but apparently crashed a bit after everyone was out the door for school. She did get up this afternoon, but only when it became apparent that one of the dogs had swallowed part of a wood skewer, kids were running and screaming, phone calls were coming in, choir was about to start, and the missionaries were on their way. We took advantage of her time out of bed to get some "real food" into her, so it worked out OK. Even though she was down all day, I think she only had one Zofran so the nausea never really got too out of control. Hoping that means she can continue to progress towards having a couple of good days before her next infusion.

Tomorrow Rory has another appointment with the oncologist, which I presume is to talk about the second half of the chemo treatments. From what we're hearing the next four cycles should be much better as far as nausea goes, but probably significantly worse with joint aches and pains. She will still have the Saturday trips to the hospital for an injection, so the mad travel schedule will continue. But she has just about completed half of the regimen and soon we'll be talking about the "end game" of this thing, meaning surgery, options such as radiation, hormone, or other therapies. Maybe some of that will start tomorrow, and I'll be sure to post anything new that we learn.

Hanging in there ...